In this section:

All posts by Carl Batt

We don't often think about the toilet as a source of information, but scientists at Cambridge University are developing an 'intelligent loo' that is able to analyze your urine. The toilet is engineered to contain optical sensors that detect different chemicals in your urine. ... Read More...

Nanotechnology offers new ways of diagnosing diseases. Most tests require taking a sample, like blood, or urine and then sending them
to a laboratory. Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology ha
ve developed a sensor that you can swallow. Inside of the sensor are bacteria ... Read More...

Researchers at Georgia Tech have made the 'World's Smallest Ad' created for Arby's, the fast food restaurants. The ad was printed on the side of a sesame seed, like the one you might find....wait for it....on a roast beef sandwich bun. The size of ... Read More...

Some medicines are more effective when they are delivered at the site where they are needed and when they are needed. Think about taking an aspirin but it works only when you have a headache. Scientists from have developed a biodegradable material with nanometer-scale ... Read More...

Nanotechnology has contributed to the advances in our ability to see different things at the nanoscale. Microscopy has advanced from the very early days of microscopes being a single glass lens to very advanced instruments with nanometer resolution. We can see lots of stuff with ... Read More...

Scientists from MIT and the University of California have figured out a way to engineer plants to glow in the dark. This isn't the first time but it is the first time that it has been on whole plants without initially do some tricky genetics. ... Read More...

Mostly everything has a nano-unit measurement including sounds. The human ear can hear things down to around 0 decibels. If you are about 100 feet from a jet as it takes off that is about 150 decibels. Your headphones can be cranked up to around ... Read More...

Before you call the typo police, we are talking mussels, not muscles. Researchers at Purdue University have developed an adhesive that is based upon the same stuff that mussels use to stay stuck to wooden poles, rocks and other places that mussels like to ... Read More...

Bees carry out important work by pollinating flowers---they move pollen from one part of the flower to another or between flowers. They contribute something like $29 billion dollars to the farm economy in the US alone. For a number of reasons the bee population is ... Read More...

Sometimes science can just be fun if not edible. Scientists at MIT have developed a process to make pasta that shape-shifts upon cooking. They claim it could save on shipping costs because you might be able to pack these flat noodles into a smaller ... Read More...

Making computer parts smaller and smaller is the reason why your average laptop is a zillion times more powerful than computers from 50 years ago that used to fill up an entire room. The basic component of a computer chip is a transistor which is ... Read More...

The world's smallest version of the Edmonton Oilers logo has been created by a group of scientists at the University of Alberta. The Oilers are the city's NHL hockey team and they are currently in the Stanley Cup playoffs. The logo is only 2400 ... Read More...

Methane is the building block of a lot of different fuels. There are a variety of methanes sources (think cows!) but on source of methane is to make it from carbon dioxide. There is lots of carbon dioxide but converting it to methane requires energy. ... Read More...

Spinal injuries can be devastating with the loss of movement in arms and legs. The primary problem is damage to neurons, those cells that transmit signals to and from the brain. There have been many attempts to fix neurons. Scientists at MIT have developed a ... Read More...

Nature provides a lot of inspiration for making things on the nanoscale. We have evolution to help get the design right and then if we are smart enough we can go into the lab figure out how it works and copy it. Things like gecko ... Read More...

Scientists come in all shapes, sizes and colors. One of the super heros of nanotechnology died last week. Mildred Dresselhaus. Who? Dresselhaus was one of the pioneers in the discovery of carbon nanotubes and predicted their existence long before anyone even saw one. Carbon ... Read More...

Windows! they let us look out on the world from our room and see all sorts of stuff. But could windows do more? Researchers have used nanotechnology to create efficient solar collectors which can collect energy from the sun. They make tiny silicon nanoparticles that ... Read More...

Scientists at Vanderbilt University have discovered a new use for the machine that is used to make cotton candy. Cotton candy is basically sugar that is spun into thin fibers. The cotton candy machine was invented by William Morrison a dentist in collaboration with a ... Read More...

Tiny bubbles are fun things when you find them in soft drinks where they tickle your nose. Tiny bubble can also be used to clean fruits and vegetables removing bacteria that might cause food-borne illness. Scientists at Virginia Tech University have used cavitation ... Read More...

To celebrate the holiday season, why not some art? The image is gold nanowires that are being 'grown' on silicon. Nanowires are important for a variety of microelectronics. To grow them scientists have to perfect the recipe by trying different combinations of ... Read More...